Bike Station Opens at Civic Center BART After Two Years of Delay

A bike parking and repair station opened at Civic Center Station today, providing BART and Muni Metro riders secure parking for 89 bikes, accessible only with a paid key card. Bike racks with another 60 spots were added outside the paid station area, adding to 63 existing rack spots.

Transportation officials and advocates held a ribbon cutting ceremony to mark the station’s opening. Tom Radulovich, director of Livable City and a BART Board member, noted in a statement that Civic Center Station is “where several of the most popular San Francisco bike routes converge, which means a lot for commuters heading into the East Bay.”

The total addition of 149 bike parking spots was initially planned to be 150 to 175. But the cost, which included upgrades to existing parking, also dropped from the original estimate of $830,000 to $650,000. It was paid for with local Prop K sales tax funds, the Prop AA vehicle registration fee, and state Prop 1B Lifeline funds.

There are five other BART Bike Stations at Embarcadero, Fruitvale, 19th Street in Oakland, Ashby, and Downtown Berkeley.

As BART bike program manager Steve Beroldo recently told Hoodline, the 24-hour “controlled access” bike station adds “an extra level of security because we know who’s entering and who’s leaving.” To park in the gated bike rooms, users need a BikeLink card and pay 3 cents an hour. The service also includes bike pumps and tools to use for repairs.

I wish New York’s MTA could get a clue from these, especially at commuter rail stations and outlying subway stops. I suspect that it will be decades before they figure it out. Way to go Bay Area!

Gezellig

Great! Looks like Bikelink updated their map of available locations, too (“G” for “garage” secure group parking now shown at both Embarcadero and Civic Center stations. “L” is individual lockers, “V” is a card vendor).

Bikelink’s pretty awesome–I use it pretty often when it’s near where I’m going. Now…for the rest of the city.

Even with the bike stations, there’s still an insane amount of wasted mezzanine space in all of SF’s BART and Muni Metro stations. I’ve always wondered how much the opportunity cost is of not leasing more space out to private vendors.

SFnative74

This is a great way to link bike trips and transit trips. I think something like this out in West Portal station could be great for people who want to get to the station quickly and take light rail downtown.

Nicasio Nakamine

A West Portal bike station would be brilliant! It would really open up the possibilities for commuting for the whole West side!

Gezellig

Yeah! When I lived in the neitherhood between West Portal and Ingleside I’d often bike to that station, park it on the street and hope for the best.

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From SFBC: Join Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) in welcoming their new, secure bike parking facility at Civic Center Station! They are nearly tripling the number of bike parking spaces to 216 through additional corrals as well as a bike room. There will be speakers present, including Noah Budnick, the Executive Director of the San […]